I’ve been a professional makeup artist for quite a few years now, and have worked on everything from local TV commercial shoots to preparing the models for London Fashion Week, and despite my range of brushes, pens and other items in my bag of tricks, the only things I really can never do without - and am constantly adding to - are my makeup palettes.
The more colours, tones and shades I have in my arsenal, the better. Whatever kind of shoot I’m on, whatever the job, an artist can never have too many shades in their makeup palettes, whether it’s a wedding or a film, there’s always a new challenge to face and preparation is key. I work by this credo and it’s never let me down yet; if I turned up to do a job and simply didn’t have the right shade that either the director or the client wanted, I could well make it work, but it could also go very wrong and not only could it lose me that particular contract, it could also affect my reputation and damage my chances of getting more work in the future, which obviously is something nobody wants to happen in this economy.
Having a fully featured range of makeup palettes, covering all possible skin tones and colours that even the most leftfield creative director would be satisfied with means that I’m fully prepared whenever I go to work, and also means that whatever job I’ve got to do, I can do it quickly and professionally, making the client or model look as good as they can as quickly as possible.
Although a good makeup artist can work several shades together in order to create the desired effect, having the exact tone to hand will often be far more useful as it will give a smoother effect without as much coverage as a few layers would require, and it also saves on resources, only using one item from your palettes rather than several. Having the right shade to hand also saves a lot of time and on a lot of shoots or shows - fashion shows especially - time is the most precious commodity there is.
My makeup palettes are the most important items in the bag I take to work, more so than my powders, pens or even, my brushes, and by making sure that I have as wide a range of them as I can have to hand, I am always prepared for any shoot of any kind, even if the creative director or photographer completely changes his or her mind at the last minute.
Anna Stenning is a professional makeup artist who works regularly in the film, television and fashion industries. Find out more about makeup palettes at http://www.crownbrush.co.uk/